Recognising "hidden" LGBT themes in old books?

Try renting the movie of Dorian Grey. It was an interesting film. Yes, there are quite a few stories out there with lgbt themes somewhere in the thread.

 

Is it just me or does George from Famous Five seem like she(he?) might be trans*?

I mean, must look like a boy all the time, hates being considered a girl. I'm noticing a pattern there.

 

I'm consider myself a strong believer in the LGBT themes in The Great Gatsby as well. When I was reading it last year, I wanted to burst into the book and say "Jay, forget about Daisy! Don't you realize that there's a great guy for you that dating won't end up leading to your death?"

 

There are very close, romantic and loving relationships between same-sex friends in a some older books, of a kind that you'd never see in a modern book. I don't think sex was supposed to be involved -- sex in general was usually not mentioned directly -- but there certainly is a lot of kissing and hugging and declarations of eternal love going on. In fact, I wonder if people used to consider it normal. For instance, Anne and Diana from Anne of Green Gables (even Anne's feelings of infatuation for Diana are described), Frodo and Samwise from Lord of the Rings. Even Sherlock Holmes and Watson (didn't Sherlock actually dislike women?).

 

I can remember reading A Separate Peace and there's definitely more than friendship between Gene and Finny. Plus, there's a scene where Gene very explicitly checks out a dude's butt.
I totally agree with Dragoness about Anne of Green Gables!! I always thought Anne was a little too infatuated with Diana for a straight girl. Anne even describes her as being extremely beautiful and charming. It's very interesting, actually.

 

I always thought that scene in Dracula when he says "that man belongs to me" about Jonathan was a bit homoerotic. Also in that same part, he goes "even I can love.." while looking at him affectionately. According to the book, not the movies.

But yet again, vampire stories are inherently homoerotic.

 

Fried Green Tomatoes. It'd still be one of my favorite books/movies even if it didn't have overt gay lady themes, but the fact that they're in there just makes it so much better. For me, at least. It's not particularly hidden in the book, but, unfortunately, the most outright lesbian stuff was cut from the movie so that they could make it a chick flick about friendship.

 

In The Turn of the Screw, the young boy Miles gets in trouble at school for "corrupting his friends". Later, he admits that he "said things", but only to the "boys he liked".

Seems pretty obvious that he made homosexual comments to other schoolboys, probably as a result of the influence of Peter Quint.

 

:lol:

I didn't get gay vibes from Frodo and Sam at all in the books. They just seemed like good friends. The movies, on the other hand, are a different story. So many times Frodo and Sam would just stare into each other's eyes and look like they wanted to kiss each other.

But that had more to do with the way the actors' chemistry and the way the scenes were shot rather than the source material.

 

I'm not saying they had sex, it's just a type of relationship you see in older books, like Anne and Diana. They're more than just friends, and there's something romantic and very intimate about their relationship. I seem to recall that they declare their love for each other at some point? Frodo doesn't have any other close relationships, and even Sam's relationship with Rosie isn't as close. If there were no stigma attached to it, I could see a relationship like that going to the next level (and who knows how many times it does without anyone knowing about it).
Doesn't Frodo even end up living with Sam and Rosie for a while, until he goes away with the elves?

 

Holmes and Watson spring to mind. There's a lot of shipping going on with modern adaptations like the BBC's, but even when it comes to the original works, I'm a firm believer that Holmes is asexual, and it is quite plausible (and obvious to me) that his and Watson's relationship was more than friendly.


And of course, if you want to get really old, the Bard is queer as hell. Did you know a lot of his sonnets were censored by changing the pronouns? A lot of them were actually addressed to men.

I was definitely hoping Helena and Hermia were going to hook up when we read A Midsummer Night's Dream in freshman English. We read Romeo and Juliet last year which contains these wonderful lines that I got to say in our scene, spoken by Romeo to Paris:

Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man.
[...]
By heaven, I love thee better than myself,
For I come hither armed against myself.

One of my favourite plays is definitely Josie Rourke's adaptation of Coriolanus, and not just because Caius and Aufidius kiss at one point. And then there's this modern adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing (Nothing Much to Do) where literally everyone is hoping Pedro and Balthazar are going to end up together.

 

Interview with the Vampire had homosexual themes because it was focused on recreating a family, and the family included two dads and a vampire girl.

It was one of my favourite books growing up and it wasn't until I did a project on it that I read the author was actually purposely touching on gay marriage/ gay family.

It's also one of the better books to have a film adaptation, didn't really leave out too much; mainly super gorey parts, and kept the message the same.

As well, I'd rate it the best vampire movie ever made, just my opinion, but this one was way more realistic than the majority of them, way creepier, and way more original. It took places in Colonial New Orleans, I can't think of a single film that takes place then.

[youtube]b7m_n2aM51Q[/youtube]

 

^ Yes!

I love Interview with a Vampire, it's also my favorite vampire movie


It had pretty strong homoerotic themes in the movie, I can only assume in the book it was more.

It was quite sexy, haha (especially that scene when Louis and Armand look like they are about to kiss each other. Mm)